Michael Hurwitz, the Greenmarket’s director, said that in the past 17 months five full-time and part-time inspectors have visited 122 farms and issued 13 violations. Three vendors have been suspended over the producer-only rule.

Nina Planck, a former director of Greenmarket, said that after visiting farms five years ago, she raised concerns about what she thought might have been violations of the producer-only rule by Mr. Dines and at least two other farmers. She said she did not see enough animals on the Dines farm to justify his level of sales.

Mr. Dines, who for five years sold his meat at Greenmarkets in Jackson Heights in Queens; Cortelyou, Fort Greene and Greenpoint in Brooklyn; and Murray Hill, West 97th Street, Tompkins Square, TriBeCa and Union Square in Manhattan, admitted he had on occasion sold meat he had bought from others and has placed his animals in other farms or facilities to be raised. But he said that Greenmarket officials were being unrealistic in their restrictions.

Bob Lewis, a state agriculture official and a founder of Greenmarket in 1976, said the group’s other 186 farmers manage to follow the producer-only rule.

Preparing for Statewide Austerity

Gov. David A. Paterson, in a brief and rare live televised address, said Tuesday evening that New York is facing a fiscal crisis in the wake of Wall Street’s meltdown, and he called on the Legislature to return next month to grapple with a budget deficit that will grow to $26.2 billion over the next three years.

Mr. Paterson gave few details about what actions he would take, but he told the public that his administration would examine an array of difficult potential steps, including reducing the state’s work force, cutting additional spending in state agencies and selling or leasing public assets. The state’s potentially staggering shortfall stems largely from the financial woes on Wall Street, which accounts for a fifth of the state’s revenue. (See related blog post.)

Even as he called on citizens to “cut up our credit cards,” he said he would push for two major initiatives that could cost the state money. One would place limits on school property tax increases, possibly increasing pressure to increase state aid to local governments and school districts, and the other would increase home heating assistance to poor and elderly residents.

Videotapes made at protests and mass bike rallies in recent years such have shown major discrepancies in the police accounts of events that were captured on camera, including one that showed a police officer knocking a bicyclist to the ground in Times Square last week that has already been viewed 400,000 times on YouTube.

In the criminal court complaint, the officer, Patrick Pogan, wrote that the cyclist, Christopher Long, deliberately attacked him with the bike — although the videotape shows Mr. Long veering away from Officer Pogan, who pursues him toward the curb.

Officer Pogan said he was knocked to the ground by Mr. Long. Throughout the tape, though, he remains on his feet, even after banging into Mr. Long. The police officer wrote that Mr. Long had been “weaving” in and out of traffic, “thereby forcing multiple vehicles to stop abruptly or change their direction in order to avoid hitting” Mr. Long. However, in the videotape, it appears that there are no cars on the street.

The Daily News adds that Officer Pogan was backed by his union, which insisted he was protecting the public from an out-of-control rider.

The New York Post reports that the then-wife of Clark Rockefeller, who the authorities say has kidnapped their 7-year-old daughter, grew so suspicious of his bizarre name game that she feared for the child’s safety and asked for supervised visits. (Mr. Rockefeller, who has used a variety of aliases, is unrelated to the famous Rockefeller family.)

At one point, relatives of the wife, Sandra L. Boss, discovered that Clark Rockefeller lied when he said he went to Yale, but nothing came of it. The two were married in Nantucket in 1995 but the nuptials were not announced, a friend said, because he was “completely against it.” A confidant there said Rockefeller had confided “when the baby was born, it was very secretive.” He didn’t refer to Ms. Boss as his wife, but as “the baby’s mother.”

The Daily News tracked down the mystery woman who unwittingly helped Mr. Rockefeller kidnap his 7-year-old daughter. She is an out-of-work financial services professional who was paid $500 to make the trip. The New York Sun reports that the Boston Police Department believes it found the black S.U.V. getaway vehicle and is questioning the owner.

An aide to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Darren Dopp, reiterated his accusations of impropriety against a panel that investigated the scandal over the Spitzer administration’s use of state troopers. [Daily News]

Sports

A 54-year-old fan was unhurt after reaching for a foul ball at the Yankees-Orioles game on Tuesday night. He apparently lost his balance and fell into the netting below his box seat. [New York Post]

A rogue referee who rocked the National Basketball Association with a gambling scandal — and even bet on his own games — was given a 15-month sentence. [New York Post]

The cost of construction in the city has risen by 32 percent in just three years because of the high price of labor, tighter supplies of materials and the added expense of building in a congested city. [New York Post]

A survey of subway toilets found that nearly all the loos in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan stations were either locked or so poorly stocked and maintained that they were virtually unusable. [New York Post]

A Delta jet heading to Salt Lake City from New York with damaged tires took off, circled for four hours to burn fuel, then landed safely back at Kennedy International Airport. [Daily News]

I should have known last December when the Children’s Aid Society of East Harlem didn’t give out its annual free ready cooked Turkey dinners that Wall Street was in trouble.
Sponsored for years by the Wall Street Association I’m sure it was greatly missed.
I hope Wall Street is feeling better soon, as it’s a fact of nature that small fish feed off the big fish!

Consumers have a reasonable right to assume the meat they purchase from a family farm is indeed from that farm. I was at the Union Square greenmarket early this morning, and I shop there because I enjoy the high quality of locally- grown and -produced food. I really don’t want to have to wonder if a farmer is reselling his neighbor’s stuff, or even worse, meat that might come from an Upstate supermarket. Some amount of rule enforcement is thus necessary. That said, there’s hardly any enforcement in America’s organic world—or even worse, the ‘organic’ garlic from China or ‘organic’ chilies from Mexico prominently sold at Whole Foods. Perhaps an exposé of QAI (Quality Assurance International) might be in order?

I’m glad bystanders in that posted video protested the cop’s beating of that man. It scares me the number of people who witness similar abuses of police power on the streets of New York City but say nothing.

The answer to the question re: Greenmarkets and local food is that it’s not as easy as it seems and I don’t have an answer right now!

I notice in the article three other people were suspended. Why weren’t they named? Why did this one farmer have to take all the heat? Also, the reporter said the replacement farm was an organic meat farm…NOT! I checked at the NOFA-NY website. They may be using organic methods but it ain’t the same as certified-organic and people reading that could easily assume it is and it could look like that farmer was misrepresenting himself. Was he? Get your stuff straight.

I’m a longtime purchaser of organic and local food and the bloom is long off that rose. Organic food in this country, especially in the Northeast (NOFA rocks!), has been well regulated and inspected way before (and after) the federal government got involved…out of the country is a totally different story but I trust it better than non-organic. Fair trade status can help.

As far as local being local? If it’s a neighbor’s food and the growing standards were up to snuff with the farmer and USDA regs…that’s still local to me. As far as Mr. Dines having some (not all) meat from Georgia for his chicken sausages that was of the same quality and standards that he has on his farm, he’s still supervising and having them made in NY and if it’s not all from Georgia…cheesemakers don’t have to be using 100% milk from their animals, winemakers can use grapes from the other side of the USA and have it labeled “local” as it’s a percentage that’s allowed, and I do know of “local” farmers that have some of their food grown anywhere from another county to another state and it’s sold as from their farm…because that’s who’s selling it, supervising the production and legally responsible for it.

Full disclosure…I’m a Dines Farm fan and will continue to buy from them as the health and safety of the food isn’t in question, it’s the provenance. Being local ain’t easy and if you’re trying to grow your business to stay in business, it’s got to be challenging. And sustainable, healthy, humanely raised meat? Got to be the most challenging so I give Dines cred for trying to do the right things.

When the NY Times article came out praising Dines Farm (about two years ago and I now can’t Google and find it…used to be the first one on the list), they had offers to sell hundreds of thousands of pounds of Hot Dogs and they didn’t take the bait then to use meat from wherever and cash in and that was the time to do it. I’m sure they could have but they chose not to. That was a LOT of moolah to walk away from.

My only question is, why didn’t they bow out before being forced out? There’s three sides to every story.

We need more farmers, not less, and farmers shouldn’t be trash talking other farmers without serious knowledge of what they’re talking about. Next time, it could be you.

I think that the article on Dines was well written, although sad. This issue comes up all the time when I go to markets. I feel that the lying by Dines farm was the major issue. There are many small farms that are working hard to raise their own animals and they have less of a market to sell to because someone saying that they are raising their own meat but is actually buying commodity meat, and we do not know if the quality is any better than Perdue, which is factory farmed. Now, Dines farm does not actually have ANY cows at their farm, which has made me wonder where their hot dogs have been coming from for a long time. The comment that I read from Suzanne was awfully ignorant and I feel that if she were to research some other local farms, which there are many of, the discovery would be that Dines has been lying to its consumers for many years and receiving a premium price for their meat which is not theirs. I felt that the falling from grace quote was sad, although deserving, since I know so many hard working farmers who deserve to take their place. I thank the author for the article.

You know the saying that when you point one finger at someone else, you’re pointing three at yourself? How does your ignorance display itself? And, you’re accusing Jay Dines of lying. What truths are you not revealing about yourself?

How would I discover from talking to other farmers that Dines has been, according to your infinite wisdom or perception, lying to its customers? That’s a pretty serious accusation. Like they would know? Most farmer’s are too busy working (till the winter anyway) to play investigative reporter however, rumors and gossip don’t take much out of one’s day. You sound like you know who I should talk to. Why didn’t you name names? If the truth is what’s being told there should be no problem, right?

A woman called me about organic food issues and she was convinced that a farmer I knew, who was a certified-organic farmer, was spraying pesticides on their food. What she wasn’t aware of was two things…
1. the north side of the road where she saw this belonged to a relative of the organic guy who was not an organic grower
2. when she changed her story and said she saw this on other land, I told her that there are things organic farmers spray (in particular these guys used biodynamic preps using sprayers) that are in compliance with organic standards

Nothing I said would convince this woman otherwise and she continues to spread her “truth”. How sad is that.

You sound like a Bush Republican who’s going to repeat your “truth” until perception becomes reality. Some will believe you, some won’t, some will seek truth.

You also sound like someone shilling for a farmer (or farmers) and your way of lifting someone up is to drag someone else down. As I said before, we need more farmers,not less, and don’t need people trashing them.

Why is Dines not at the Brooklyn Flea? The flea is having its own problems with trying not being shut down. I don’t think they want any more controversy than they already have on their plate. Plus, I heard the vendors are so close together that when Dines was grilling food, other vendors were complaining about the smoke/smell. Maybe they were vegans.

You think Jay Dines is sitting on his duff eating bonbons compared to all the other hard-working farmers you know? Think again. He’s a hard-working farmer too. How do I know? I’d had conversations with him for a year before I ever purchased anything from him about his farming practices, life story, etc and now have been purchasing food from him for the past two years and have continued the conversation.

Is he the only farmer I know? Was I born yesterday? Nope to both. I’ve been active in the organic/local food movement for the past 12 years or so, been to numerous conferences on organic farming (got conferenced out at one point), have read extensively on the subject and been connected to groups such as NOFA-NY and the Weston Price Foundation because of my interest in these issues. I shop at farmstands, farmers markets, have been a CSA member for 11 years at 3 CSAs and visited many farms as well. Also, I’ve eaten at many restaurants that support organic and local food over the decades and when possible/appropriate, talk to restaurant owners and chefs about where their food comes from.

Have I visited Dines Farm? No, but then again, I feel I’d need to know enough about animal farming to know what I was looking at. Otherwise, I might call something “fetid” as the author did, though it might just be a normal smell in an average barn.

Vegetables are more my forte but I’m learning about animals from people like Joel Salatin, Bill Niman and other pioneers in the quest for healthy meat to eat.

BTW – not a relative, not on the payroll, just happy to eat the best Hot Dogs I’ve ever had and a bunch of other tasty, meaty treats.

I feel as though this may turn into a contest of who knows who of local foods in the Hudson Valley which is really not my goal. Also, naming farms and farmers that I support is important but there is a time and place for promoting them and these comments are not going to turn into advertising for real farms. The point I am ultimately trying to make is that farmers markets should be spaces for the SMALL farmers in the region since there is plenty of places for the large farmers to sell and that goes for vegetables, honey, maple syrup and baked goods as well as other lovely things available at the markets. When there is a farmer at a market telling the consumer that their meat is raised on their farm, then that is where it should come from. Simple as that. I do not claim that Jay does not work hard in life, but just working hard should not entitle you to selling commodity meat as your own. When, in the past, Jay or an employee of his would arrive at a market with cases of steak tips, I would have to think that he had slaughtered 25+ steer just for that days market, but I am serious when I state that there are no cows there. It is often unrealistic to think that a small farmer can meet the demand of a large market, but that is why, as a community if we connect small farmers together and compromise our demands many of us could be successful, and we will not feel the need to become corrupt in the name of competition between farmers. Please, when you are buying food at a farmers market or directly from farmers, ask questions, and educate yourself on how many of an animal it would take for the farmer to be there. If it seems impossible, it probably is. I have often wondered how another farm can have 26 pigs, but every week at market, they sell several pork loins, and never run out of pork chops. Why?

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